shree > Recent Status Updates

i gotta chill on the currently reading and actually finish some of them but this is a fun one so far hehehe

hmmm it’s changing shape compared to what i thought it would be but it’s really interestingly pieced together

my heart feels like it’s being squeezed and squeezed and squeezed and squeezed

love it, the style of content was ~23% of my undergrad program

the number of books in the currently reading list is getting scary and laughable

why is this taking me an eternity

nomi 5 star review and melo glowing review got me curious :0

oh lily 🫂

what a love letter to the city! it’s been fun to map out the streets in my head, was literally at washington sq park last week

bawled my eyes out will resume and tackle last stretch after like a 24 hr break

excited to see how it shapes up :-)

in minimal words, i feel a sense of kinship w him

wow she’s so gifted at casting an atmosphere over her work + describing sensations

ended up reading more and made it thru some of part ii. i think a fine balance was so detailed each moment we experience w the characters felt excruciatingly long where here it moves so quickly that i feel like we keep losing time w the characters. the pacing is interesting, this is a much faster read than i initially thought it would be :0

i can’t help but compare this to my reading experience for a fine balance. it has a similar short-chapter continuous storytelling vibe but looking forward to seeing more of its unique strengths and more of a glimpse into mjl’s writing abt zainichi korean community across the different generations

listened the audiobook for this on my drive to campus yesterday not knowing anything about it beyond what she said in her nobel speech and wish i had seen the trigger warnings 😭 hate the husband so much it’s visceral

second book i’m reading abt a harvard student and both protagonists were so tonally similar.. not sure what’s afoot @ hvard to explain this.

exhales

let this be the first and only book of the year that i should’ve just dnf’d 😐 too far in and wanna know who did it atp but like bruh i should’ve dnf’d like 20% of the way in

hmm. read part 1 and interlude in one sitting, not sure how i feel about it. trying not to compare it to chemistry but it really is a different book. interestingly, saw gr reviews saying its a humorous book but i haven’t laughed at all yet. i think i need to see how the second half plays out

hmmm not on brand for me to read self help often but these are actually useful so far and don’t center productivity but wellness / feeling good

the first like 25% dragged for me but then i either got more used to the tone or the subject or the plot picked up a bit. it took me days to get thru first 25% and one sitting to get thru the next 20%

pam and i are co-reading! this book inspires a pit of dread in my tummy

re-entering reading era after brief hiatus, juggling between 4 unfinished books @_@

francie’s grown up far too much too soon, i think her interaction with her teacher was a big benchmark of how much her worldview changed in such a short time span. cycling between comfort and horror(?) @ how resonant stories like this one, written semi autobiographically for a childhood >100yrs ago, can be all this time later.

there are different forewords in my physical copy + epub. both are so good. in my physical copy, the foreword talks about how the success of the book is that francie is a realistic character who embodies a lot of human experiences. smith talks abt how ppl say they felt she wrote their life story. 82yrs of that. wow. i found myself writing out my own memories as a child that were like francie’s, beat by beat.

stopped myself right before the chapter where francie can read! this section was a double whammy because it was a reminder that for as much good that teachers and doctors do, they have so much potential to do harm. seeing this harm carried out onto francie was heard to read especially as someone who wants to advance child welfare thru education + medicine :<